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| Nick Turner, right, had a career day for Mount Union with nine catches for 144 yards and a touchdown. Mount Union athletics photo by Alex Divitto |
The defending national champ got its season started and last year's national runner-up got its second win as each of them had big wins against ranked teams. Check out more in the Top 25 recap.
In defense of its national title, North Central turned to Garret Wilson, a former walk-on at Oklahoma State who transferred in over the offseason, and he threw for 261 yards and two scores and ran for 72 yards and another touchdown as top-ranked North Central defeated No. 16 UW-Oshkosh, 45-14. It started off slowly for the Cardinals, as they had a punt blocked which Oshkosh recovered on the 1 and quickly turned into a 7-0 lead. But North Central scored 24 points in the second quarter and 45 in a row to put the game out of reach. Demir Ashiru, a transfer at quarterback from Division II Ferris State, took snaps as well and ran for a touchdown in the second quarter while also completing both of his passes. The Cardinals defense held the Titans (1-1) to 50 yards on 21 carries.
Grove City scored first but it was all Mount Union for the next 48 minutes as the No. 2-ranked Purple Raiders took it to No. 15 Grove City in a 49-14 win. The Wolverines (1-1) got on the board first after a big 43-yard run by Ian Demeri got the ball into the red zone and quarterback Sutton Ellis scored on a 10-yard draw to give his team an early 7-0 lead in front of a crowd of 5,000 at Robert E. Thorn Field. But senior Darnell Williams made a tackler miss and broke through for a 67-yard touchdown run on the second play of the very next drive, and the Purple Raiders scored on two of their next three drives to quickly make it 21-7. Mikey Maloney was 21-for-31 passing for 305 yards and Williams had 10 carries for 116 yards and three touchdowns.
UW-La Crosse got a touchdown catch and a touchdown run from Gabe Lynch in the first half, and then blew the game open in the third and fourth as the No. 9 Eagles turned a 14-7 lead into a 38-14 win against No. 17 Carnegie Mellon. Kyle Haas was 24-for-32 passing for 272 yards and three scores for UWL, which was playing its first game of the season. The Eagles picked off Joey McGinnis IV twice, although he hit Brendan McCullough for two touchdowns as part of a seven-catch, 199-yard day.
No. 3 Johns Hopkins rolled out to a 21-3 lead in a battle with No. 20 John Carroll, then held on to down the Blue Streaks 27-13. JCU opened the game with a field goal before JHU (2-0) scored the next 21 points, each of them on passes by Bay Harvey. He found Robby Enright for a 24-yard score, then hit Cole Crotty from 37 yards out and added a 21-yard TD pass to Geoff Schroeder. Nick Semptimhelter did throw for 303 yards and a score, and Ty Montgomery hauled in 12 catches for 152 yards and a score, but the Blue Jays defense held John Carroll to 4 yards on the ground on 21 carries.
No. 4 Susquehanna needed to overcome an early 10-0 deficit but rolled from there, defeating Bridgewater 56-17. Josh Ehrlich made up for lost time after not throwing a touchdown in Week 1 against Union by throwing for four touchdowns. He connected on 21-of-29 for 188 yards, officially putting him over 5,000 career passing yards as a River Hawk, the fifth person ever at Susquehanna to reach the mark. Four River Hawks got carries on Saturday, all of them finishing between 70 and 95 yards, combining for 325 yards and four scores.
No. 6 Hardin-Simmons retained the Wilford Moore Trophy with a 24-19 win over crosstown foe McMurry on Saturday night at Shelton Stadium. The win was the Cowboys' 11th straight against McMurry and the third straight in a one-possession game that went down to the wire in the series. With McMurry driving inside 2:00, Caden Sampson-Stuckey came up with a sack on fourth down to end McMurry's chance of the upset.
Nathan Uselding threw four touchdown passes and Zackary Bothun ran for three touchdowns as No. 11 UW-Platteville improved to 2-0, defeating Dubuque 56-27. Uselding, getting his second start at quarterback, completed 33 of 43 passes for 428 and also ran for a touchdown for the Pioneers (2-0) in the win. Jaxson Garbisch led all receivers with 11 catches for 143 yards and three scores, with the touchdowns coming from 14, 15 and 35 yards. Dubuque, which is 0-2 after two games against WIAC opponents, threw for 345 yards but the Spartans were intercepted twice and finished with just one rushing yard on 15 attempts.
Cortland quarterback Mike Rescigno rushed 16 times for 144 yards and a score and completed seven of 12 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown as No. 23 Cortland defeated visiting Union, 30-6, in a non-league game. Cortland (1-1) and Union (0-2) met for the first time in a regular-season game; the teams previously played three times in the postseason, with Union winning in the 1989 NCAA playoffs and Cortland winning in the 2007 ECAC Northeast Bowl and the 2017 New York Bowl. Anthony Luciano turned in the game's key defensive play, forcing a fumble and recovering it in the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter with Cortland clinging to a 10-6 lead.
No. 13 UW-River Falls improved to 2-0 on the season with a 59-47 non-conference win over Coe. The Falcons and Kohawks combined for nearly 1,400 yards of total offense, including 733 from the Falcons and 569 from Kaleb Blaha alone - a new UWRF program record and third all-time in the WIAC, breaking his previously set record of 556 at Ohio Wesleyan in 2023. UWRF jumped out to a 21-0 lead through the first quarter and maintained the lead throughout despite a strong push back from the Kohawks while both defenses struggled to hold the respective offenses at bay. Coe outscored the Falcons 47-38 in the final three frames (led by quarterback Brady Kelly's impressive 627 yards of total offense and six passing touchdowns) but didn't manage to break the UWRF lead.
No. 18 Hope delivered another dynamic first half on the road and a 2-0 start to the season. The Flying Dutchmen overpowered Franklin during the opening two quarters to earn a 38-14 victory on Saturday. Despite challenging weather conditions, the Flying Dutchmen scored 31 consecutive points during the first half after the Grizzlies jumped to a 7-0 lead on the opening drive. Hope finished with 509 yards in total offense, with 330 yards passing and 179 rushing. The Flying Dutchmen entered the game ranked fourth in the nation in total offense. "To be up 31-7 at halftime was outstanding, especially because we had a squall come through with rain and wind," Hope coach Peter Stuursma said. "We didn't drop the ball. We didn't make mistakes. The defense hung in there. It snowballed from there in our favor."
No. 19 Randolph-Macon was shut out for the first time since the opening round of the 2008 playoffs, as the Yellow Jackets' long trip to Pella, Iowa, ended in a 10-0 defeat. Central scored on a bruising, 13-play, 97-yard drive in the second quarter to go up 7-0 and added a field goal in the final minute. Dante Casciola had a pass picked off in the end zone in the second quarter and Randolph-Macon had the ball down at the Dutch 7-yard line before taking a third down sack and missing a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter. R-MC missed from 42 again on its first drive of the fourth quarter and did not threaten again. Cam Schulte caught eight passes for 112 yards and a touchdown from Hunter Hoffman, who went 21-for-29 passing for 227 yards.
"I was really proud of our resilience," Central coach Jeff McMartin said. "Our mindset was good; we battled all day through the heat and against a great opponent. It wasn't always perfect, but we kept playing the next play. It's a big win for us."
Defensive lineman Trent Cakerice came up with multiple big plays. In the third quarter, he had a sack on third and goal, costing the Yellow Jackets 18 yards and led to a missed field goal. He also batted down a pass on third down in the fourth quarter, leading to a punt. Cakerice and defensive end Evan Schroeder each finished with seven tackles.